Zinedine Zidane was the greatest footballer in the world during the early 2000s and is one of football's all-time greats. He earned his first cap with France as a substitute in a friendly against the Czech Republic on 17 August 1994, which ended in a 2-2 draw after Zidane scored twice to help France erase a 2-0 deficit. After Éric Cantona was handed a year-long suspension in January 1995 for assaulting a fan, Zidane took over the playmaker position. France were eliminated in the UEFA Euro 1996 semifinals in a penalty shootout by the Czech Republic after the match ended 0-0 in extra time. He moved to Juventus and helped them win two Sere A titles and 2 consecutive UEFA Champion league finals but lost both.

Zidane won the 1998 FIFA World Cup with France, scoring twice in the final against defending champions Brazil and won the FIFA World player of the year in that year. France then went on to win UEFA Euro 2000, becoming the first team to hold both the World Cup and the European Championship since West Germany in 1974. in 2001 he then signed for Real Madrid "Galacticos side". for a then world record fee of €78 million and signed a four-year contract. He scored the match-winning goal, a thunderous volley hit with his weaker foot, in Madrid's 2-1 win over Bayer Leverkusen in the 2002 UEFA Champions League Final completing this personal quadruple. The next season, Zidane helped Real Madrid to win the Spanish league title and was named the FIFA World Player of the Year for the third time. In fact He was voted in top five FIFA World Player of The Year for 9 times during 10 years between 1997 - 2006.

Zidane was perfect in his role setting organization of the game, superb ball control, precision passing combined with great physical strength. He has already considered by many in top ten the greatest footballers of all-time. In 2004, Zidane was finished as the best European footballer in the last 50 years by UEFA Jubilee Poll.

Yeah true.Actually I wanted to suggest to decrease values in this segment for other players.There are many of them in classic section with the highest values for both WFA and WFF.It's not fair, nothing compares to ZIDANE in this segment

Yeah true.Actually I wanted to suggest to decrease values in this segment for other players.There are many of them in classic section with the highest values for both WFA and WFF.It's not fair, nothing compares to ZIDANE in this segment

despite the fact that there are more 2 footed players than zidane. go on youtube and look at clips of some of the people i mentioned before. some of them have scored wonderful goals with their weaker foot.

Ok, but with his current stats he is a bit underrated, or should I say some other players are overrated.Maybe you won't agree with me that he is the best ever, but in history books he is always in top 5.With his accumulated stats he takes only 15th place in stats/ranking ladder with likes of D. Edwards , L. Kubala, Zizinho... above him.I know there are some more 2 footers, but are you sure that it was their manner?Cause I'm sure that it was Zidane's manner (scored more goals with his left foot).Also some other players are given TEC 97,98,99, whose first touch is not even close to his

Sekularac wrote:.With his accumulated stats he takes only 15th place in stats/ranking ladder

I still think its a bit more subjective than that when considering the importance of one stat over the other, rather than the sum of all their values.

The other players mentioned are maybe more agile, quicker or better finishers than Zidane but Zidane is easily within the best 5 or so players in the database with his stats imo. Especially when you take his strength into account which is much more than most of the top legends. On top of that hes probably the best passer in the database therefore dwarfing most of the players you mentioned in this aspect. Plus you have his God-like dribbling, God-like technique And teamwork ( theres a bigger increase in technique ratings when you go up in the reds btw)

Id say his stats look fine to me bar a couple of tweaks maybe. as for the WFA, WFF buisness there's no such thing as someone being the best two-footer ever, really. If a player is completely ambidextrous he really deserves 8 for both, and there's been quite a few.

To me there's no doubt that hes a footballing master, but hes in my top 10 rather than best ever though. Id rate him alongside Zico and Platini who could just be as good as Zidane on their day, but that's just my opinion.

" If I have seen a little further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants." - Isaac Newton

On the Czech element I actually rate Nedved at WFF 7 and WFA 8 (to me he is not a natural two footer). But Masopust from what I seen his dribbling was flawless between either foot, and often I could not tell what foot he was touching the ball with. I am pretty sure I read that he was both footed too when I was researching him.

On Zidane's stats I got lazy and only tested that Dribble Speed thing at 90-92, and I am ont going to test it higher simply because I am lazy , so I am dropping that part of my suggestions, also Brezza and sencesor think its fine (though I do remeber Bret_Hart_67 wanting 98 on the old site, but let him make a case for it then. XD).

sorry mates, but i think that going over yellow with dribble speed is not fair to other players, Zidane was an amazing dribbler, but even when dribbling he was slower than many nÂº10 of his time. He just kept the ball so close that it was impossible to take it away from him. IMO he was at the same level as figo or rui costa when it comes to speed and i donÂ´t see anyone trying to raise their dribble speed so high, i do think 88 is too much already.

I used to say a few years ago that there were only 2 gods of football at that time: Zidane and Ronaldo, and Zidane was my favorite because of his pure class and being a playmaker.But the way people look Zidane is influenced by how things went well for him in the most broadcasted moments of football. So you need to rate him based on his average game, not on some CL final or world cup, otherwise iÂ´d say his header was fantastic, wich would be from true.

Rivaldo was also a God. He could score from anywhere on the pitch at any moment, and often did. When it mattered most. He and Zizou were the true number 10's of that era. I think I agree about DS staying yellow, unless someone can come up with a proper argument. I've tested over 90 and he becomes Zinediego Marazidona.

It's almost like the Garrincha thread, people exaggerate the speed of players because they are such great dribblers.

"When we were winning leagues and European Cups at Real I always said Makelele was our most important player. There is no way myself Figo or Raúl would have been able to do what we did without Claude and the same goes for Liverpool and Gerrard."

Yeah, this is good, it should be consistency 9.To remind you, during his Juve period (96-01), he was constantly playing on his highest level.Every of this five seasons, he was considered as the best Juve player even when they didn't win titles.

IndividualUEFA Champions League Best Midfielder - 1998 Ballon D'or - 1998 Serie A Foreign Footballer of the Year - 1997, 2001 Serie A Footballer of the Year - 2001 Onze d'Or - 1998, 2000, 2001 French Player of the Year - 1998FIFA World Player of the Year - 1998, 2000UEFA European Championship Team of the Tournament - 2000FIFA World Cup All-Star Team - 1998FIFA 100 (Pele's choice)UEFA Golden Jubilee Poll ( 1. place!!!)

Alcohomicide wrote:Rivaldo was also a God. He could score from anywhere on the pitch at any moment, and often did. When it mattered most. He and Zizou were the true number 10's of that era. I think I agree about DS staying yellow, unless someone can come up with a proper argument. I've tested over 90 and he becomes Zinediego Marazidona.

It's almost like the Garrincha thread, people exaggerate the speed of players because they are such great dribblers.

well, maybe it could reach yellow, but not 88.

btw, i've just scored an hatrick with zizou against classic ac milan (great defense) in a 4-3 win! in my game he has 72 for agression and he's scoring way too many goals even with the default shooting stars, but i'm not shure what to do yet, maybe i'll lower a bit his BB so he starts to feel the pressure of the defenders when inside the box or i'll raise his mentality, i'm not really shure it will work

I am dropping my Conditioning 8 suggestion from the list on the first page . Almost too little to have the 7 for what he managed in appearances for juve, but with the 40+ games for France while at juve I do suppose he fits the bill at a 7.

Why not just give 99 in every stat, these remind me of the stats for classic Henry (not a compliment...).

Everybody knows he was one of the best players during the late 90's, but come on!

His passing stats are overrated, and if it weren't for the general overrating in TEC in the classics I'd lower this as well. Compared with current players I'd give him 96/97. 99 is reserved for Maradona (the only player deserving of it).

Also his dribble speed was never-ever 88, that's just so over the top it's not even funny. Yes his control when running with the ball was great, IMO he resembles Riquelme here, his superior control and agility was enough. Very rarely did he run with the ball like DS 88 will make him do. 80 max IMO.

choccy wrote:Why not just give 99 in every stat, these remind me of the stats for classic Henry (not a compliment...).

Everybody knows he was one of the best players during the late 90's, but come on!

His passing stats are overrated, and if it weren't for the general overrating in TEC in the classics I'd lower this as well. Compared with current players I'd give him 96/97. 99 is reserved for Maradona (the only player deserving of it).

Also his dribble speed was never-ever 88, that's just so over the top it's not even funny. Yes his control when running with the ball was great, IMO he resembles Riquelme here, his superior control and agility was enough. Very rarely did he run with the ball like DS 88 will make him do. 80 max IMO.

A lot of senseless stuff here. Your opinion is for some other reality, or you've never watched Zidane carefully enough(or at all!!!). With a full respect for players mantioned above(especially Maradona), if someone deserves 99 for technique it's Zidane!!!!! As I said you didn't see enough of him, or you didn't see him at all! edit- dont spread the page like that (Brezza)

Yes, I'll admit it was a poorly written post, in retrospect it goes under drunken ravings. What can I say, alchohol doesn't always work online.

Having said that, most of these stats stem from the History of Legends OF, apart from a few tweaks. In short, seems like regurgitated stats to me. And the passing stats really are a bit silly, even a drunk person can spot that